UPDATE:The
American government has made it possible, starting in 2012, to slaughter horses for human consumption within the
United States. All horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. had been closed in 2007,
and horses were shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.

The SAFE Act (Safeguard American Food Exports)
2013—2014 isthe only
hope to stop both the
slaughter of horses within the U.S. and also their transport
for slaughter outside the U.S. Please contact your
Representative and your two Senators and urge them to become cosponsors
of this crucial bill. Representatives who are currently
cosponsors:
H.R.1094. Senators who are currently cosponsors:
S.541.

The final walk before death

The British media focus attention on one
aspect of the racing industry that racegoers and the general public
rarely consider: the slaughter of racehorses. In 2007, Animal Aid,
an organization in the UK, released footage secretly filmed in an
English abattoir. The exposé was covered
in the British press.

Secretly filmed in an English abattoir...
HEALTHY HORSES AND PONIES BUTCHERED FOR MEAT EXPORTS

Animal Aid today (Thursday, September 20, 2007)
releases footage secretly filmed in an English abattoir. It
shows discarded children's riding ponies and unprofitable race
horses being shot in the head with a rifle and then butchered
for human consumption....

Covertly recorded last month at Potter’s
abattoir in Taunton, the Animal Aid footage shows the killing of
a succession of apparently fit and healthy horses. One
conspicuous exception was a seriously injured chestnut mare who
was brought to the killing factory on the evening of August 14.
After a long delay, she was finally shot while lying in a
yard....

About 20 of the roughly 50 horses Animal Aid
filmed over just two days and one evening were Thoroughbreds
[horses bred for racing]. [Note: Defra, the UK Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, says the Taunton operation,
together with another in Cheshire, kills 6,000-10,000 horses a
year for consumption abroad.]

Says Animal Aid Director Andrew Tyler:

'The fundamental problem at the heart of the
horse slaughter scandal that we have uncovered is that these
horses are bred to excess. They are produced for commercial
reasons, by both the Thoroughbred racing industry and by those
servicing the pet horse and pony market. When an animal is no
longer useful, he or she is often simply disposed of. This is
the fate of thousands of healthy horses and ponies every year.'

The ponies abandoned by British children and
sent to France as horse meat

The slaughterman precariously balances a rifle
against the small grey pony's head.

Seconds later a shot rings out, the pony flails
on the ground and is then winched onto a production line.

This is the reality of the slaughter and
butchering of thousands of unwanted riding ponies and racehorses
at a British abattoir....

The remains of this pony, like much of the meat
that passes through Potter's abattoir in Taunton, Somerset, each
year will be sent to France as there is no taste for horse meat
in Britain....

Its latest annual report says it is engaged in
the "elective euthanasia of equines and export of horse
meat"....

The food and farming department, Defra, says
the Taunton operation, together with another in Cheshire, kills
6,000-10,000 horses a year for consumption abroad.

Animal Aid director Andrew Tyler said: "What
all the former owners have in common is the transient use of
their animal. They feel that their responsibility is
relinquished once the horse or pony is of no further use to
them.

FSA (Food Standards Agency) statistics released
to Sky News show a dramatic increase in the number of UK horses
slaughtered every year, from 3,859 in 2007 to 8,426 in 2012.

Depending on the size and breed they are bought
for anything between £100 to £300 and can fetch around 700 euro
on the European meat markets.

The animals come from a variety of backgrounds.
Some are former pets, others come from show jumping or the race
track.

A report last year from the British Horseracing
Authority (BHA) found: "The number of thoroughbreds reported
dead to the Horse Passport Issuing Authority rose by 580—an
increase of 29%—from 1994 to 2574 horses.

"Of these, 1127 horses either in training,
breeding or out of training were reported as killed in
abattoirs—and reported to the Government Meat Hygiene Service
—from 499 horses in 2010, an increase of 126%."

However, in a statement to Sky News, the BHA
added: "This is a wider equine issue and not an issue for the
British racing industry, which is one of the country's most
highly regulated equine pursuits.

"However, if there are allegations that any
horse, whether thoroughbred or not, is being inhumanely treated
in an abattoir we would fully support any investigation and
subsequent action, if appropriate."

During the investigation, Hillside Animal
Sanctuary rescued one racehorse called Underwriter by bidding
against the abattoir at auction. They discovered it had a
distinguished career.

John Watson, from Hillside, said: "It's not
just ill and old horses being killed. There are very many fit
and healthy horses, horses with foals, pregnant mares, and
thoroughbreds that are being treated badly.

"It blows away the myth of humane slaughter,
and there is a misery in that place that is palpable."

Racehorses are ending up on dinner plates
overseas as the gruesome trade in horse flesh booms.

"You can literally be watching a racehorse
run at Randwick [Australia] on the Sunday and the next week it
is on its way to a dinner table in Japan," horse welfare
advocate Laura Stoikos said....

Of the 17,000 thoroughbreds born last year,
only about two-thirds will ever make it to the racetrack.

Of those, most suffer injuries or do not run
fast enough and only about 1 to 3 per cent make it to top
events....

As with cattle and other livestock, the most
desired horse meat comes from younger animals in good condition
and with quality muscle, and that means young thoroughbreds.

Queensland vet Eva Berriman said young horses
still in their prime were being killed for human consumption.

"...The finger must be pointed firmly at the
racing industry, which has a very high attrition rate of fine
quality, well-muscled horses still in their prime, often with no
road open to them except to a horsemeat abattoir," Ms Berriman
said.

There is only one organised horse welfare group
in Australia, Cedar Springs Horses Inc, that rescues
thoroughbreds destined for the slaughterhouse.

Miss Stoikos [Cedar Springs Horses Inc] said
the treatment of the doomed horses was horrific. "They can smell
the blood and they are killed one after another and they can see
the horse in front of them killed so they know what is going on.

"People get upset when they see a racehorse
break down on the track that has to be shot, but for every one
of those horses there are thousands before it that never make it
that far....

"The racing industry
really turns its back on what happens to the horses."

An undercover Observer investigation has
revealed the shocking fate of thousands of British racehorses.

It is known as 'the sport of kings', full of
glamour, effort and thrilling competition. But few of the
thoroughbred racehorses that gallop their elegant way around the
racecourses of Britain every week are left to see out their days
grazing in golden pastures.

For thousands of British thoroughbreds that are
too old, too slow or not good enough jumpers, the end is brutal:
a bullet through the temple or a metal bolt into the side of the
brain. Then their carcasses are loaded on to freezer lorries and
driven to France, where their flesh is sold as gourmet meat.

This mass disposal of thoroughbreds is the side
of the multi-billion-pound British racing industry that is
rarely mentioned and even more rarely seen. It is not illegal.
But animal welfare charities are demanding that more money be
spent to provide sanctuaries where horses can live in
retirement, and that the massive breeding programme that
provides the sport with its horses be scaled back. Most of the
animals, which could live on average more than 30 years, are
killed before their fifth birthday.

This weekend an Observer investigation shines a
light on this grisly underbelly of the sport. We reveal the two
British slaughterhouses whose 'knackermen' kill more than 5,000
horses a year, many of which were bred to entertain punters and
racegoers. We also reveal that a director of one of the horse
abattoirs claims to have killed horses for leading names in the
industry and that another is a judge at the Horse of the Year
Show.

There has always been a mystery about what
happens to the 4,000 British racehorses that are 'retired' each
year from the sport or the hundreds of young thoroughbreds not
good enough to make the starting post. Even the sport's official
body, the Horseracing Regulatory Authority, admitted to The
Observer that 'racing doesn't really know what definitely
happens to the horses when they stop racing'. Some will be
retrained for hunting or eventing; others will be used for
breeding. But the physical make-up of racehorses means that many
are not suitable for riders who want a gentle hack on a Sunday
afternoon.

Thousands of race horses are slaughtered
every year — and they're the lucky ones.

Five thousand racehorses end their careers each
year. This excludes the 375 in an average year which are raced
to death and the 4,000 foals which are considered not worth the
expense of training.

The owners of the 5,000 horses, which are
increasingly often syndicates, usually sell up after the glory
days end. Retirees meet several fates: leisure, neglect, or
slaughter for pet food.

What happens to thoroughbreds when they don't
make the grade, or when owners and trainers judge them unfit for
the track? This is about six years old for flat race horses, and
about 12 for steeplechasers. "So few racehorses are heard of
again after their careers are over," says John Francome, racing
commentator and champion jockey.

The fact is that we in this country do not eat
horses. Many Committee members would not eat dogs or cats.
Personally, I view eating horses as a revolting practice. Horses
are companion animals, and we should not encourage that
revolting practice in any shape, size or form. However, each
year approximately 10,000 horses—a small proportion of the UK's
one million horses—are killed in the UK and exported abroad to
be eaten.

Nearly all the horses that go for slaughter
are two or three-year-old racehorses that have been injured.

James Gray is Vice-Chairman of the
Conservative Back Bench Agriculture Committee, and the Conservative
Back Bench Department of the Environment, Horse and Pony Taxation
Committee. President of the Association of British Riding Schools,
Honorary Associate of the British Veterinary Association, Consultant
(unpaid) to British Horse Industry Confederation.

Although it does not focus exclusively on
racehorses, an article of interest about the slaughter of horses for
meat throughout the world is
Horse slaughter and horsemeat: the facts, by Dr. Eva
Berriman.

The slaughter of American horses

In the United States, horse slaughter has been
banned — the last remaining horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. were
closed in 2007. However, it is still legal to transport horses,
many of them former racehorses, across the borders to Canada and
Mexico, in brutal conditions, for slaughter there. One American
horse is killed every five minutes for human consumption in Mexican
and Canadian slaughterhouses.

On 20 May 2008, Fox News aired a report on TV about
the transport of horses from the U.S. to Mexico and their death in
Mexican slaughterhouses. Included in the program was an interview
with a Mexican veterinarian: "The method used to kill horses in most
of the clandestine plants in Mexico, (all over the country) is by
stabbing them in the spine until they are disabled. Then they are
strung up from their hind legs and their throats are slit. Some
others are killed by hitting them with a hammer on their heads, as
well as donkeys and mules and most of them are skinned even if they
are still alive."

One horse's experience of transport to slaughter: "Big winner
nearly dies on the way to slaughter"

"All that money, nearly a half million dollars worth of racetrack
winnings, couldn't help her as she thrashed in panic and fear.
Flailing beneath the hooves of 30 other terrified horses, last
December in a tractor-trailer heading for a Canadian slaughterhouse,
once-winning race mare Press Exclusive had lost her balance on the
truck, and her place in the world."

"This report provides documentation of the numerous
ways horse slaughter is inhumane. At the moment a horse is
designated a 'kill horse' fated for slaughter, handling and
treatment change radically from that normally given horses. A 'kill
horse' is treated with disturbing cruelty, with high levels of
violence and aggression, and with apathy and indifference even from
those who would normally protect and advocate for the animal’s
well-being. While cruelty and inhumane treatment immediately
mushroom for these horses, concern for their safety, health and care
are so diminished they are virtually nonexistent."

If the racing industry is established
in Israel, many former racehorses will
inevitably be slaughtered — either within Israel or after transport
to other countries for butchering there. THIS SHOULD NOT
BE PART OF ISRAEL'S FUTURE.

American racing's "dirty little secret" — the
nurse-mare foal

Rescued foal at Last Chance Corral

Another ugly phenomenon of the horseracing industry is the slaughter
of "nurse-mare foals."

After a racing mare is retired, her value depends entirely on being
bred as often as possible: at her next heat, or 7–14 days after
giving birth. In the United States, the Jockey Club (which sets the rules
determining which horses may be registered as Thoroughbred) requires
that Thoroughbred mares be impregnated physically by stallions (live
cover) and not by artificial insemination. A mare must be shipped to
the stallion for mating. Commonly the mare is nursing a foal, and
that foal has monetary value. When the mare leaves to be bred to a
stallion, her foal does not go with her. The journey is too
dangerous for a newborn, and the insurance to cover a traveling foal
would be too expensive. However, the foal must be nursed. Breeders
lease wet nurses for this purpose. They are mares with no value
other than to produce milk for another, more valuable, mare's foal.
However, to be lactating, the nurse-mare will have a foal of her
own. That foal, known as a "nurse-mare foal," has no monetary value.
When that foal's mother travels away to feed a potentially valuable
racing foal, the nurse-mare's foal will typically be killed for his
or her hide ("pony skin").

A few very fortunate foals are purchased by sanctuaries, hand-raised
until they are old enough to be adopted, then placed in homes.

"Just
Say Neigh: A Call for Federal Regulation of By-Product Disposal by the Equine Industry" highlights the foals of the nurse-mare
industry:

Read the article on the website of the Animal Legal and
Historical Center of Michigan State University (see especially pages
206–208)